Animal Proteins More Effective Than Plant Proteins in Building Aging Muscles

Soy and wheat proteins are useful for constructing growing old muscle mass. However, it is not as potent as animal protein, finds a new study.

Animal proteins are more effective compared to plant proteins in supporting skeletal muscle mass maintenance with advancing age, reports a new study. The findings of the study are presented at The Physiological Society's virtual early career conference Future Physiology 2020.//

The number of vegans in the UK has quadrupled since 2006, meaning that there are around 600,000 vegans in Great Britain. While we know plant-based diets are beneficial for the environment, we don't actually know how healthy these diets are for keeping muscles strong in elderly people.

Eating More Plant Protein to Keep Your Heart Healthy
Plant protein improves your heart health. Swapping small amounts of meat with plant protein foods can reduce the risk of an early death by up to half.

‘Plant proteins don't help build muscles as much as animal protein.’

Scientists generally agree that the primary driver of muscle loss with age at least in healthy individuals is reducing muscle proteins being built from amino acids. These amino acids come from protein that we eat and are also formed when we exercise.

Oliver Witard of King's College London is presenting research at The Physiological Society's Future Physiology 2020 conference about soy and wheat proteins showing that a larger dose of these plant proteins is required to achieve a comparable building muscle response.

Simply transitioning from an animal-based protein diet to a plant-based diet, without adjusting total protein intake, will likely to be detrimental to muscle health during aging. A more balanced and less extreme approach to changing dietary behavior, meaning eating both animal and plant-based proteins, is best.

Plant Protein Vs Animal Protein: Vegetarian Diet Reduces Risk of Heart Disease and Death
Replacing 3 percent of protein from non-vegetarian foods such as red meat with plant proteins such as grains, nuts and vegetables can reduce the risk of death.

Witard and his colleagues conducted carefully controlled laboratory studies in human volunteers that involve the ingestion of plants compared with animal-based protein sources. To test changes in participants' muscles, they use several techniques including stable isotope methodology, blood sampling, and skeletal muscle biopsies to see how quickly the muscles were building up from amino acids.

It's important to note that this research to date has only compared two plant-based protein sources, namely soy, and wheat. The researchers in this field will be conducting further research on other promising plant proteins such as oat, quinoa, and maize.

Replacing Red Meat with Healthy Plant Proteins Lowers Heart Disease Risk
Substituting red meat with healthy plant-based protein can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) or heart disease, finds a new study.

Commenting on the research, Oliver Witard said: "This research challenges the broad viewpoint that plant proteins don't help build muscles as much as animal protein by highlighting the potential of alternative plant-based protein sources to maintain the size and quality of aging muscles."

Source-Eurekalert